*latest update*: "Liturgy: Ark Raving Mad" - Our review of their new album The Ark Work, making a proud contribution to this band's fame. *click*.

Black Ivory Tower started 3 years ago as my personal website for metal reviews and articles. Over time, I was joined by a handful of talented writers, and together we developed a distinct style. Our reviews are extensive and profound, and relate the music to a broader cultural and societal context. The strict quality-over-quantity policy we enforce has made updates scarce, but always worthwhile.

Soon, Black Ivory Tower will enter a new era with its first physical publication. Subtitled Interbellum, this first issue will be approximately 60 pages long. It distinguishes itself from most other underground metal zines by its focus on reviews over interviews. Adopting the essayist style from the website, articles span across several full-colour, professionally printed pages that aim to give the reader a deeper understanding of the music, and to motivate him to look at music in new ways. Bands covered are mostly extremely obscure, and cover a range of styles, including (black) metal, ambient, post-rock and folk.

The magazine will be available by the end of July.

Meanwhile, you can check out some of our online work to get a good idea of the style that will be expanded upon in the magazine:

Excerpts:
"As is often the case with black metal of Eastern European origin, the visual design of the album tells us a lot about the music. Illustrations of abandoned quarters on the inhospitable Russian countryside provide a glimpse of the atmosphere that multi-instrumentalist Vladimir establishes throughout five songs."

"One cannot fully prevent the notion of ‘Neige worship’ from springing to mind."

“Inhuman Slavic growls over contemplative riffs still make for a very peculiar atmosphere.”

"When it comes to a unique approach, the band still seems to be looking for its niche, but all ingredients are there to make this album into a true underground hit."_________________Black Ivory Tower zine | Website | FB

It was already mentioned casually in the introduction, but I can now proudly announce that we are working on our first physical publication. The first issue will contain both reworked versions of existing articles, and a ton of new stuff. The magazine will be in English (though I will publish Dutch versions of everything online), and the lay-out will most likely be black text on a white background instead of the other way around. We are currently working on the design, and it will still take a while before we have enough new material to fill the magazine, so at the moment we are aiming for a publication at the end of this year, or the beginning of the next.

More information coming soon. Meanwhile, you can click the picture below to take a look at the revamped version of our Akitsa review (new lay-out; slightly adjusted text).

Quote:

Excellent webzine, really. I can feel lot of involvement in the reviews/articles !

"We commenced working immediately on realising the first publication of Black Ivory Tower."

"The rather deplorable level of metal magazines (I bought a copy of Rock Tribune this week. Jesus Fuck…) strengthens our belief that the ‘scene’ can use a push into the right direction."

"The magazine will – lamentably – be in English. While this goes against my many principles, there is no other workable solution seeing as the designer nor the other editors speak Dutch."

"We will do everything in our power to keep the price as low as possible by merely covering expenses. We will also try to keep the magazine free of advertisements, just like the website."_________________Black Ivory Tower zine | Website | FB

Excerpts:"Canadian black metallers Pagan Hellfire prove that the Norwegian tradition, even after two decades of genre evolution, has conceded little in the way of vigour."

"Black Ivory Tower does not subscribe in the least to the anti-nostalgic sentiment that enjoys considerable popularity among many younger listeners of black metal. We do, however, understand it. Few things are more annoying than the dysphoric wailing of old bags who speak of the ‘good ol’ days’ in a tone that implies they were there when Euronymous tinkered with the shelves of Helvete."

"Incarnatus, the sole musician behind this project, possesses an extraordinary talent for creating melancholy-fueled riffs without ending up in the emotionally stale DSBM-zone."

Excerpts:"I see myself first and foremost as a drummer. I obviously like practising the guitar and the bass while composing for Sühnopfer, but truly drums rule all my activities linked to music."

"If you want to get back to an identity more deeply rooted in your region, it’s a good thing on a cultural level, an improvement, and most of all a counterweight to the way most of the rootless and uncultivated young people living in France behave."

"This new album is to be called Offertoire, it will include 7 tracks and will last about 50 minutes; two songs deal with more religious themes while the others tackle locations and legends from Bourbonnais, but still in a medieval context."

"I hope that for all these years I’ve set up a project with its own personality."

Minor update: it has come to my attention that readers who are not logged into Wordpress and who do not use AdBlock may occasionally stumble upon ugly ads ruining the page. I was not aware of this until now and I will soon pay my protection money to Wordpress to have them removed. Until then, I suggest you download AdBlock.

Cool interview ! Don't published all your writings 'cause nobody will be interested to buy the paper edition !

Haha, no need to worry about that. I already have some magazine-exclusive stuff finished, not to mention that some of the old reviews I'll republish, will be revised and provided with a new layout, information, etc.

This interview had to be published now, though, because it contains interesting information on the upcoming album of Sühnopfer, as well as some other stuff that may not be as relevant when I publish the magazine at the end of this year or even the start of the next.

As for interest, the stock will be strictly limited anyway, seeing as my group of readers is not too big. We'll see if I'll be able to sell some copies. _________________Black Ivory Tower zine | Website | FB

In other news, I've paid off the extortion money to Wordpress after it turned out they were putting obnoxious ads on the website (see one of my previous posts), so it should now be completely ad-free again. Should you still see advertisements of any kind, please let me know.

Note that the above only applies to the English version. The Dutch version is technically a separate blog so I'll have to pay seperately to remove the ads from there, as well. I might do this in the near future, but until then I suggest you use AdBlock Plus or, if you have a Wordpress account, log in on it and you will not see ads regardless._________________Black Ivory Tower zine | Website | FB

As can be read in the most recent update (which is ages ago seeing as I am too busy being a working class hero irl), the site will be shifting its focus to the Eastern European scene in the near future.

I am currently in the process of learning Russian, but at a very modest rate (I only just got the hang of the Cyrillic alphabet, ffs), so for the time being, it would be way more practical if one or more people could translate a few lyrics for me from time to time. I'll of course compensate your efforts in one way or another (CDs or shirts most likely), and it won't be much work.

So if you are:
- fluent at one or more of the following languages: Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish
- at least fairly competent at English (or Dutch )
- not a crybaby about political connotations (I may review communist rockbands or NSBM bands all the same*)

I strongly urge you to contact me either via PM or by writing to blackivorytower [AT] gmail [DOT] com.